The famous Greek geographer, philosopher and historian Strabo described Reggio as an “illustrious city”. Throughout classical antiquity, Rhégion remained an important maritime and commercial city as well as a cultural center, with academies of art, philosophy and science, such as the Pythagorean School, and figures such as the historian Ippys, musicologist Glaukos and sculptors Pythagoras and Klearkhos. Rhegion (present-day Reggio Calabria), one of the oldest Greek colonies in Italy, was the birthplace of Ibycus, one of the famous nine lyric poets, a group of important ancient Greek poets ( Metauros, present-day Gioia Tauro, would be the birthplace of another, Stesichorus, the first lyric poet of the Western world). Greeks settled heavily along the coast of Calabria: Sybaris, Kroton, Locri, and Rhegion were among the leading cities of Magna Grecia during the 6 th and 5 th centuries BC. Many of the new Greek cities became wealthy and powerful – some of the most important include Cumae, the earliest Greek colony on the Italian mainland and founder of new cities such as Neapolis (Naples), which would become the most important city in Campania the wealthy Sybaris, which based its prosperity on agriculture and was the founder of Poseidonia (Paestum) Kroton, where the mathematician Pythagoras founded a philosophical school Thurii, where historian Herodotus retired and fertile Heraclea (Policoro). Greek colonists opted for the coastal areas of Southern Italy because of the fertility of the land and its geographical position which was ideal for trade, being a meeting point of the Greek, Etruscan, and Phoenician civilizations. The Romans called the area “Magna Grecia” - Great Greece.

They colonized the coastal areas of Calabria, Apulia, Basilicata, Campania and Sicily. Greeks began to settle in Southern Italy in the 8 th and 7 th centuries BC, exporting their culture, which would later influence the Roman world.

Pitagora and archimede magna graecia